WEST SENECA, N.Y. (WKBW) — A sewer battle is brewing in one Buffalo suburb. Right now the town of West Seneca is looking to take steps to revamp its sewer infrastructure.
However, one business said the town's efforts are hurting its bottom line and is taking the town to court.
Kate Kotecki, Owner of Koteckis Grandview Drive Special Events Venue said the town of West Seneca left behind two 10-foot tall manholes.
She said not only was the work done on her private property, she was never notified about the changes.
Kotecki said what has been a premier destination known for its beautiful greenery, landscaping, and waterfall is now home to these.
"So as you can see there's one big mound and there's the other mound," Kotecki said.
Kotecki said after hearing the sound of construction from her home which is also on the property, she reached out to the West Seneca Engineering Department and said she was "nonchalantly" told they'd be raising the manholes. However, she didn't know why or what the end result would be.
"All of this was happening and nobody had any answers for me," Kotecki said. "Nobody told me. Nobody told me what was going on and all of this was happening on my private property where I do business."
Gary Dickson, West Seneca Town Supervisor said the Town is under a consent order with the DEC to improve and maintain the sewer system.
"Basically more or less from Union Road to approximately Koteckis we'll raise the manholes so that in the future, if there's an ice jam the water will not flow high enough to get into the sanitary sewer system," Dickson said.
"I had realized that this was way more than just raising the manholes because in my head I thought it was going to be super simple and I had contacted my attorney," Kotecki said.
Kotecki said this is the official easement for the property that has been in place for 60 years.
She said everything within the black outline, shaded in gray belongs to her family. The two manholes now lie in the southern bounds of the property. Kotecki said after failed attempts to meet with Dickson and other town representatives the project was completed while she was out of town. She filed a lawsuit along with two other neighbors with similar issues and wants the mounds removed.
"If they got their wish and we had to reverse it, well then that would allow flooding in the future which DEC would not like and it could impact the sewer service for hundreds of homes," Dickson said. "So we are simply not going to allow that. We certainly and readily agree that we should have done the notifications and we apologize for that. I apologize for that. It shouldn't have happened."
"They knew what they did," Kotecki said. "They didn't care to communicate. They can apologize now but it's kind of an ask for forgiveness not permission kind of thing."
Dickson said sewer work is complete but the lawsuit stops them from being able to begin the clean-up portion. He said the claims of "what a mess we left behind" are simply not true because they never finished the remediation process. Dickson said he was able to work with other residential property owners with similar manholes and replanted grass, shrubs, or other things to help camouflage the mounds. However, the same outcome has not yet been possible with Kotecki and two other property owners.
Dickson said in an effort to keep lawsuits from happening whenever work is needed in the future, he said the Town is left to turn to Eminent Domain. He said it's a long process and is hopeful everyone can come to mutual terms before then. If not, they will have to agree upon a price with the property owner to buy a "small portion" of the land that would give the Town access to the sewer line.
“So now you're going to take my private property, my place of employment, my home, my everything,” Kotecki said.
